A Civil War History Hunt Among Friends
The weekend before deer season a few of us friends got together for a good old fashioned relic hunt. Chip in MS, Willoughby Smitty, GeoDiggerMike, Swampdigger, Swampdaddy, Ladyslim and me, Slim would be in for an action-packed couple of days!
Friday evening the troops started to arrive. A few of us took a ride by the sites for a little pre-hunt sneak peak. Meanwhile, Ladyslim was back at the ranch whipping up a batch of crawfish etouffee made with a pack of Louisiana crawfish that GeoDiggerMike brought up from Louisiana. After a tasty dinner we gathered in the den to review our game plan for the hunt.
Saturday morning we were on site at first light. It was cool and cloudy. Perfect weather for relic hunting! The team spread out and it wasn’t long before we started finding a few nice dropped Civil War bullets. Everyone gathered up after a couple of hours to check out the finds. Included with those early finds was a perfect Confederate Richmond Labs bullet found by Swampdaddy. Not long after our break Willoughby Smitty got a solid hit that turned out to be a Confederate button! This turned out to be a nice South Carolina coat button. The hunt was on now! Everyone started popping out a few bullets and other odds and ends. Soon it was time for lunch and a review of the finds. After lunch we were off to a new site for more detecting. Right before dark, Chip found a hot spot loaded with 3 ring Minie’ balls. He called us all over on the radios and we got busy swinging our coils. The day would end with rain and relics. The rain didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and by quitting time we had found more than 30 Civil War bullets from that small spot. Thanks Chiperoo!
Sunday morning the clouds broke and the sun came out. The temperature was very mild. It would be another day made just for relic hunting. Day 2 turned out to be a great day for sure! Checking out a few different sites throughout the day yielded more Civil War and colonial goodies. Before the day was through we revisited the small site where Chip had located the bullets on Saturday. The grass there was high so I decided to break out the mower and see if we could get a little more depth by giving it a trim. Once cut we converged on that small plot. Swampdigger was able to get some good bullets from the depths – one of which turned out to be a very nice dropped Confederate Gardner bullet. Right before leaving that spot I got a good signal. I dug my plug and a bent coat button popped out. Well, I brought it over to Ladyslim and we couldn’t figure out what was on it. So off we went to hunt a little more before dark. Next, Ladyslim found her first 3-ring Minie’ ball in between two bend nails. The rest of the day would yield some more Civil War artifacts including a couple more of those hard to find Richmond Labs bullets. GeoDiggerMike had always wanted to find one and as fate would have it his last good signal of the hunt would be none other then a nice dropped Richmond Labs! Well done Mikey.
With that we all packed up and got ready to head home. While we were packing, good ole Willoughby Smitty got a good look at the button I had dug earlier and pointed out to us that it was a Confederate artillery button of local manufacture. How did we miss seeing that? What a great surprise!
It had been one of those relic hunts that will be long remembered. Good friends, good food, and good metal detecting – it just don’t get no better than that!
